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III. Les Rougon-Macquart. Describing the Weather – and a Changing Climate

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Literature and Weather
This chapter is in the book Literature and Weather
IIILesRougon-Macquart. Describing theWeather–and a Changing Climate1 From weather to climateThis third chapter differs from the two chapters preceding it in one centralaspect. In contrast to the readings of Shakespeare and Goethe, it is not dedicatedto the study of one single, exemplary literary text but instead attempts to tacklea complete, voluminous cycle of novels: Émile Zola’sLes Rougon-Macquart. Withmy decision not to pick out one particularly pertinent novel but to focus on thecycle as a whole I am not merely adopting the intended scope of Zola’s literaryproject or his own ambitions or reflections on it. Viewed more closely, this‘decision’is not at all of a methodological or strategic nature. It is rather guidedby thefindings which reading the cycle with my interest in the relation ofweather and literature has brought to light.In contrast to its role in Goethe’sWerther, the weather does not break intoZola’s world as an unexpected event, as a foreign force that disrupts the dominantregime of representation and order. It does not make itself felt as a forgotten or,rather, repressed force at the underside of the enlightened world that turns outto be constitutive. In the novels of theRougon-Macquartthe weather and itsdefining notions–temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudage and with itchanging conditions of light, but also the movement of water and the generalnotion of (seasonal) changeability–are omnipresent. As the analyses of thefollowing sections will show, the world of theRougon-Macquartis not hauntedby the weather as the world of Goethe’sWertherwas, itisin actuality a world ofweather.Nevertheless, weather events play an important role in quite a number ofthe novels of theRougon-Macquart: the hailstorm inLa Terre, the snowstormsofL’AssommoirandLa Bête humaine, the pouring rain in the climactic scenesofL’ArgentandUne page d’amour, only to name some examples of a muchlonger list. However, despite their primarily catastrophic nature, these instancesof heavy weather are not alien to the world they seem to haunt. On the contrary,they characteristically correspond to it: Mouche dies while the hailstorm destroysthefields outside; the snowstorm ofL’Assommoirresonates with Gervaise’smisery, with her haunting the streets, being driven by her hunger to prostituteherself; the snowstorm ofLa Bête humainethat causes damage to the locomotive‘metaphorically’prepares the catastrophe of the disastrous accident that willfollow; inL’Argentthe wet weather accompanies the crash of the stock exchange,https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110560978-004
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

IIILesRougon-Macquart. Describing theWeather–and a Changing Climate1 From weather to climateThis third chapter differs from the two chapters preceding it in one centralaspect. In contrast to the readings of Shakespeare and Goethe, it is not dedicatedto the study of one single, exemplary literary text but instead attempts to tacklea complete, voluminous cycle of novels: Émile Zola’sLes Rougon-Macquart. Withmy decision not to pick out one particularly pertinent novel but to focus on thecycle as a whole I am not merely adopting the intended scope of Zola’s literaryproject or his own ambitions or reflections on it. Viewed more closely, this‘decision’is not at all of a methodological or strategic nature. It is rather guidedby thefindings which reading the cycle with my interest in the relation ofweather and literature has brought to light.In contrast to its role in Goethe’sWerther, the weather does not break intoZola’s world as an unexpected event, as a foreign force that disrupts the dominantregime of representation and order. It does not make itself felt as a forgotten or,rather, repressed force at the underside of the enlightened world that turns outto be constitutive. In the novels of theRougon-Macquartthe weather and itsdefining notions–temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudage and with itchanging conditions of light, but also the movement of water and the generalnotion of (seasonal) changeability–are omnipresent. As the analyses of thefollowing sections will show, the world of theRougon-Macquartis not hauntedby the weather as the world of Goethe’sWertherwas, itisin actuality a world ofweather.Nevertheless, weather events play an important role in quite a number ofthe novels of theRougon-Macquart: the hailstorm inLa Terre, the snowstormsofL’AssommoirandLa Bête humaine, the pouring rain in the climactic scenesofL’ArgentandUne page d’amour, only to name some examples of a muchlonger list. However, despite their primarily catastrophic nature, these instancesof heavy weather are not alien to the world they seem to haunt. On the contrary,they characteristically correspond to it: Mouche dies while the hailstorm destroysthefields outside; the snowstorm ofL’Assommoirresonates with Gervaise’smisery, with her haunting the streets, being driven by her hunger to prostituteherself; the snowstorm ofLa Bête humainethat causes damage to the locomotive‘metaphorically’prepares the catastrophe of the disastrous accident that willfollow; inL’Argentthe wet weather accompanies the crash of the stock exchange,https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110560978-004
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Acknowledgments v
  3. Table of contents vii
  4. List of Abbreviations ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. I. The Tempest. Staging the Weather 17
  7. II. Werther. Reading the Weather 147
  8. III. Les Rougon-Macquart. Describing the Weather – and a Changing Climate 317
  9. Conclusion 552
  10. Works Cited 566
  11. Index 585
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110560978-004

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Acknowledgments v
  3. Table of contents vii
  4. List of Abbreviations ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. I. The Tempest. Staging the Weather 17
  7. II. Werther. Reading the Weather 147
  8. III. Les Rougon-Macquart. Describing the Weather – and a Changing Climate 317
  9. Conclusion 552
  10. Works Cited 566
  11. Index 585
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